Disney World or Bust!

Another Christmas Surprise was at 10am Christmas morning when Mickey Mouse called to say that he is so excited to see us at Disney World in a few weeks. Yup, we are going at the age when my two girls are at the pinnacle of Princess euphoria. We feel it necessary to go now since we will be moving to Hungary in July for three years. So, Sweeping Booty, Cinda Wawa, Jasa Men, Widdle Mermaid, Moowan, Hoca Pontus, Beow, No White, and the rest of the Disney crew: watch out for the Chapmans! Here we come!

Christmas Surprises!

On Christmas eve we had a visitor. AT OUR DOORSTEP!! After Santa made his rounds around base in a fire truck, he came to our doorstep bearing a gift for Haley and Maleia. We have been trying to find a Disney Jasmine polly pocket doll for a year for Haley to no avail. But Santa got one and brought it to Haley. Santa is pretty dang cool. And, as you may know, Maleia lost her Piggy Piiggy at WalMart and we have been trying to find one on ebay, stores, etc. Again, to no avail. But Santa brought it special delivery Christmas eve and she hasn't put it down since. She even woke up that night crying because she had a bad dream that her piggy was flushed down the toilet... Potty Training and Pigs don't mix.

My Kids Say the Darndest Things

Cute things kids say:

Haley knows that when there are yellow signs with deer on them that Deer live around there. So she saw a yellow sign with a truck on it and asked, "Do trucks live around here, Mommy? They must have big grages." (meaning garages)

We told Haley that we are going to a Parent-Teacher conference and she asked if the Prophet was going to be there.

Maleia calls anyone with a pony-tail a piggy tail. She calls Merry-go-rounds "Piggy-go-rounds". She looks for her little piggy every time we go to Wal-Mart yelling, "Here, Piggy piggy!" She will NOT eat anything that has pork in it... not even knowing that there is a relation to a pig. She will find pigs everywhere we go. She loves to read books with pigs in them. The itsy bitsy spider song is the "Itsty Bitsy Piggy." At EVERY prayer, she blesses "the pigs." There are some mighty blessed pigs somewhere.

Christmas Joys

Our tree was up a week and a half ago and it was such an adventure! First off, Haley was so excited to get it up and couldn't wait until daddy got home to finally put up our Christmas tree. When daddy got home, that is the first thing she wanted to do. "Hi Daddy! Let's go get the Christmas Tree!" It went all down hill from there... Here's the conversation that they had while I was getting dinner ready and feeding Dylan:

Haley: Why are you only putting lights on the bottom of the tree? (Brandon was finished putting up one strand of lights)
Brandon: We are going to use more than one strand of lights.
Haley: And WASTE them!!???

Brandon: Haley? Come and hold the lights for me again.
Haley: AGAIN?!! Not again!! (Whiny voice) No thank you! I'll just watch.

Haley: (waiting with four ornaments in her hands) Are you almost done [putting in the lights] Daddy?
Brandon: It'll be done when it's done.
Haley: Aaaargh! How much minutes?
Brandon: 10 hours.
Haley: 10 HOURS!!???
Brandon: Just Kidding. Probably 10 minutes.
Haley: Okay, 10 minutes. I'll count.

(Haley puts on some ornaments and then gets bored and leaves. Then comes back a few minutes later.)

Haley: Wow! You guys have been working so hard!
Brandon: Yea. Where have you been?
Haley: (sigh) This was taking so long. I went to do something else. I only wanted to put on the sparkly ornaments.

Monique: What's that you have Haley?
Haley: It's a goat. Why do we put goats on the Christmas tree? Are they flying goats or regular goats?
Monique: Honney, that's a reindeer.
Haley: Well, this is DEFINITELY not a flying reindeer. Flying reindeers are bigger and have red noses. These must be Christmas Tree reindeers. They just hang, not fly.

Roaring Dance Moves

Here's an email that I sent out today to all the mom's in my preschool:

My favorite quote for today was:

"Okay, Jack. Please stop roaring while dancing. (Jack laughing) It's not funny. Okay, so it's a little funny, but the girls don't like it and are scared so please stop." The girls had all stopped and were nervously watching him backing away. I thought he was actually pretty creative and funny. :) It's tough being the only boy in Preschool .

The response from Jack's mom:

We'll do our best to teach Jack not to roar while dancing...but truthfully, his dad Jared thinks that if a guy MUST do a girly thing like dance, well, he'd better do some manly roaring to balance it out!! :-)

Christmas Party

Seldom do we take pictures of the adults when we are out and about, so here we are with some of our great friends here at the local community Christmas Party. It was quite the ordeal with crafts, food, rides, and of course Santa. The kids? They are running amok to the right of us . . . somewhere.

The train ride. Just Haley's style. Short and slow. If it weren't for me saying "weee! Look at us go!" Maleia wouldn't have even noticed that we were on a ride. She wanted to get out and walk along beside us. She probably could have gotten there faster.

Christmas Creme Cookies

(Hey Dawn!!) Ta Dah! So I did it. Aren't I wonderful wife? I made Brandon's favorite holiday cookies that take forever to make and are so much work. NOT! But I did help Brandon make them. Yes, Brandon made them, but it was my idea. Okay, so I am trying to squeeze as much credit out of it as possible. But they sure are yummy and a great holiday treat. Low fat, um, not so much. Notice the "creme" in the name. Brandon told me a story about how his aunt had these for her Wedding Reception and how much work "the sisters" (as the Washburn clan calls them) put into the cookies the whole week before the wedding and how many of them were devoured by the cousins. WE will be savoring every one we eat and will be handing out some to share, but people won't truly appreciate the sacrifice until they have made them. Um, I guess I know from experience since I cheered Brandon on while making them and hearing him tell me how much work they were. "Whot was thot Bwondon?" -As I stuff my face full of Christmas Creme goodness. I can almost hear the holiday pounds attaching onto my body.

Bring on the SNOW!!

Yes, it is dark outside. They stayed outside for a very long time and enjoyed every freezing moment.

You can tell Dylan loved every moment of his first snowfall. :) Notice: it is so bright that I had to sheild the sun with my body.

Our "giant" snowmen. Yes, those are brads. . . more than one use for scrapbooking supplies. And yes, that is a piece of yarn for a scarf. One's a little sad that he doesn't have arms. (Maybe he knows that he will melt the next day...)

If it's going to be cold, there'd better be snow on the ground! I am just happy that there is something to show for all the frezzingness (yes, that is a word. Check Monique's Dictionary.) that we have had lately. And, of course, there was a 2 hour delay for work, so we were able to enjoy it as a family. We even made TWO snowmans. (again, yes, a word. Check Maleia's Dictionary.) The only thing was that the snowmans had to wait until Daddy got home and it was dark when he arrived. But Haley was ever so patiently waiting to build one with daddy. Okay, so every hour on the hour she pumped me for information. What time is it now? When will Daddy be home? Do we have carrots? I bet the snowman could borrow my scarf. Is that daddy's car I hear? Where is daddy?!?? :) Brandon didn't disappoint. He even helped make 2 snowmans. Guess how big they are? hee hee. They are "Baby Snowmans" according to Maleia. I guess that could make them snowbabies?

Wanted: Piggy Piiiiggy

It has been a sad couple of weeks. One day we went to Walmart and Maleia begged to bring Piggy Piiiggy with her (her plastic Little People pig), so I told her she could if she was careful with it. Well, we do our shopping and we leave. Halfway home she yells, "I a'got Piggy Piiigy at Woah-mott!" Apparantly when I let her down in the checkout area, she put her piggy down. So when we got home I called WalMart and they thought I was just loony, but they checked for me and (sniff) no piggy piiggy. She is still talking about it, though I thought she might have forgotten by now. So we are on a hunt for one for Christmas... she prayed for him today at lunch to "have fun playing with all the toys at Woah-mott."

Turtle Ducks

Maleia really wanted to sing the "Turtle Ducks" song today and we had a hard time thinking about what song that was. We tried "3 little ducks" . . . but then she yelled, "Mommy, the one with Miss Piggy!!" Of course she would remember Miss Piggy. (She loves pigs.) Since most of you are confused, the Muppets Christmas album has "The 12 Days of Christmas" on it and we listen to it all the time in the car. We told her the parts that Miss Piggy sings, so she loves it. We had to teach her that it is Turtle Doves, not ducks, but maybe we can petition for it. . . click on "The 12 Days of Christmas" to hear the song for yourself. It is one of the coolest light shows I have ever seen!! (Though the Fitzwaters might be in the running. . .)

Haley's first sentence. . .

Naps!! It's surely not every day that I get one, but when I do it is awesome. I put everyone down for naps today and since I already cleaned the bathrooms, kitchen, and worked out for the day, I felt a deserving nap was in order. I awoke an hour later to Haley with a marker in her hand. As I feared the worst, she holds up our dry erase board that I use for preschool with her first ever sentence. For those who can't see it (or need an interpreter) it reads, "My daddy and my mommy and my Maleia and Dylan and Haley are together." She knows how to spell a few words, but she sounded out all the words BY HERSELF!!! Notice the "R" for "are" and "OTOGGETHHHETHR" for "together!" I was so proud of her for more reasons than one. You see, Haley felt a little bummed when she found out that several of her friends were going on airplanes to go visit their grandparents or other family for Christmas after Pre-K today, but I explained to her that this Christmas was going to be special because we were all going to be together and that some families won't be able to even be together with some of their family for Christmas. I thought it only appeased her a tad, but to see her smiling face, the sentence, and the picture above it with all our family standing together near the Christmas Tree and snowflakes to the left, I was so proud of her to not only write her first sentence, but to get the importance of a family, no matter how big or small. The big dot at the end is the first period she wrote, but then showed me a much smaller one next to it and told me that she forgot that they were supposed to be small. So, since I can't keep this, I took some pictures and will put in in her scrapbook. What a girl!

6 Years Already??

This man of mine is oh so fine! :) You know you have been married for more than 5 years when you go Christmas shopping for your kids on your anniversary. Okay, so we only did that for half the date, but I still consider it a HOT date. . . you should have seen how fast we could shop without kids! phew! The fact of the matter is that it didn't really matter too much what we did, as long as we spent that time together. We did have a feast for dinner, but the best parts were 1. No cooking 2. No cleaning 3. HOT meal (instead of a cold one when you eat with your kiddos, another reason it was a hot date) 4. A constant stream of conversation with no interruptions and 5. We got to catch up on US. Smooches to you babe! XoXOxxxOOxXOoX

We are blessed to have Dylan blessed

It is amazing how your ward truly becomes your family. Brandon was able to bless Dylan today and we were able to have friends from all over to support us. There were 15 men in the circle today and not one of them was a family member. Now that is love! My aunt and cousin were able to come watch, so they were our token family members :) We love this little boy and he is quite the blessing in our lives right now. Our two girls love, mother, and sometimes even smother their brother, but he seems pretty much used to it by now. Thanks for all the love! It was such a remarkable day.

Me.

1. I am a closet girly-girl. I grew up with 3 brothers and so many guy friends that I have gained this macho ego that hid my love for girly things. (Which I didn't know I had until I was in college and had a roommate that had as much makeup as I had clothes. And then 10 times that of clothes.) I love being pampered, romanced, made up, and to play dress-up (aka: try on new cute clothes.) This girly-girl complex intensified when I had a major girly girl for a daughter. My true princess. I even love a good chic-flick.

2. But, I'm still totally a Tom-boy. . . I know, complicated. My favorite type of movies are the Oceans' 11 genre. Action/Adventure/Comedy with complex and sometimes outrageous plots that always end with a happy ending. I'm a sportsaholic, motercycle lovin, football throwing, rough and tumble thrill adventurer who is the first one to volunteer to play in any sort of game/sport, go snow boarding, go wake boarding, or any other outdoor activity. I try to hold back my competative streak during friendly games, but I like to do things that let me go all out.

3. I am so business minded. I like to think how I could make money or what a good money maker could be. I get this from my dad who is an uber entrepreneur who loves to set up businesses and be his own boss. That's me. I would love to do that, but the timing isn't great right now because I love the stage that I am in being a mom. I am content with my two part-time jobs being a preschool teacher and a scrapbook instructor, both I can do mostly from home, but it fills that need to provide and are more like hobbies than jobs. I even dabbled in a home clothing business at one time. I almost have Brandon convinced to start a Zuka Juice franchise and have my own scrapbooking store when I grow up to be a grandma. :)

4. I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the world finds this dull and would much rather skip this part of the blog than actually get to know why someone is who they are, but I cannot get around the fact that I am who I am because of the knowledge I have of Jesus Christ and His gospel. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I know it is the true church. The gospel was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ along with the Bible. I believe both of them to be the word of God. I know that God loves me and us all, so he made sure that we receive direction and strength through a living prophet and loves to hear and answer our prayers. I hope you know that I do the things I do to make sure that I get the chance to live with God again. I'm not perfect, but that's what makes this knowledge so sweet.

5. I adore my kiddos and hubby & truly love to brag about them. Hence: the blog.

6. A few extras about me that you might not know- - -I can't get enough pictures or enough time to scrapbook them. I would love to one day figure out to make movies from my pictures or home videos that can have music in the background and fun effects. I want an off-road motorcycle and teach my kids how to ride. I love music and love to find unknown artists that are true musicians. I get giddy when I get magazines in the mail, yet I have a phobia of the post office. (seriously. I can't make myself go in there. I have a stack of things that I need to send and won't sell stuff on ebay because it means I have to go "there.") I can't wait until my kids are teenagers so I can teach them to snowboard, wakeboard, scrapbook, watch them do the things they like to do, and just see them be big. I also want to stop them from growing up and enjoy seeing them do the things they do right now being so little and cute. It's a catch 22. They amaze me every day. My husband knows all the above about me and is still willing to cope with me. Now THAT is amazing!

I guess that is me. I love being where I am and where I used to be. I can't wait to find out what's ahead of me and my family. And I enjoy finding out what is coming up next in my own Action/Adventure/Comedy/Romance and hopefully experience that happy ending.

1st Day of Preschool!

So I get to have the opportunity to teach preschool again. . . this time with Maleia. I have fond memories of teaching Haley for two years, so it is so fun to make new ones with Maleia and having flash backs when I used to do this with Haley and her friends. 2 is pretty young, but their brains are like sponges and I love rediscovering the simple pleasures of life with them.

Halloween Haunting at its best

Our family Halloween photo. A skater, monster, princess pirate, angel and doctor. (You can guess who is who.) What a crew!

Our little pumpkin. . . fully equipped with a bright shining smile!

Our little "mousy" and little angel

Trunk or treating at the church. Maleia opted for the "Princess Pirate" costume that Haley wore last year. . . Pirate with a tu-tu.

Phew! What a crazy Halloween Day. Cute Chapman boys all tuckered out.

Halloween = free candy. And who doesn't like free candy?! We did go trick or treating and had to avoid all the lawns with scary decorations, had to pick up the girls when they saw older kids in their masks and bloody faces, and had to run away from a house that had scary music and fog coming from it. Okay, so Halloween isn't all fun and games, but at least my girls earned their candy. Phew! Maleia would have been fine with the first sucker she got. . . that's all she ate all night anyway. And Haley was done shortly after we saw (more like ran like the dickens away from) the house with the scary music. :) After 30 minutes of hard labored trick-or-treating, we were on the way to a friend's house for dinner and Haley asked, "What does "tricker" mean?" I gave a stammering explanation of how we are asking people to give us a trick or a treat. "But I just want a treat,"responds my intuitive 4 year old. And all I had to say was, "Well, it's a good thing that we went to all the nice houses, then." Then she added, "maybe it's a trick when they give us yucky candy or don't come to the door when we ring the doorbell." -Maybe we need a lesson on gratitude. :)

Dylan is Solid!

We just LOVE having this boy around home. We don't think of him as chubby. We call him "SOLID!" He gained 3 lbs. in 3 weeks! He is now a whopping 11 lbs. 4 oz!

A little piece of Heaven

Haley stepped foot in the water and that was pretty much it. She loved the pools and preferred the sand castle making and sea shell searching to the ocean wave jumping.

Maleia wasn't a fan of the feeling of sand on her feet at first. (Poor child deprived of beaches.) But became an avid beach bum in minutes.

Major hottie that I picked up at the beach. Too bad he's married. :) Okay, so he's already mine.

We stayed at a super villa . Dylan enjoyed the rest and relaxation along with the rest of us.

This is one of my favorite silly pics of the week. The two girls in the middle with "gobbles" on (as Maleia would say it) are mine! :) (You really need to click on the picture to get the full effect.)

Hilton Head, SC is a marvelous place to visit. It has the best beach I have ever been to. (And I have been to plenty of beaches.) Our Chapman family reunion was a big hit with everyone involved. No casualties, camera losses, or memorable quarrels. Not that I expect these things, but there really wasn't anything too bad about this trip at all. We saw Savannah, rode bikes all around the Island, the boys played golf, we swam in the numerous pools and hot tubs surrounding the resort, and played Karaoke Revolution until we knew many of the songs by heart and groaned when the kids wanted to sing them over and over again. :) It was a true vacation away from the hectic to-dos and got to know each other better. Not to mention my brother-in-law and I won the 1st annual Reid Chapman Bowling Championship and even got a trophy. (Thanks Ash) Dylan was pretty spoiled being held almost every second he was awake (and asleep for that matter) so I am trying to get him into a schedule and learning that I can do a lot with one hand. sigh. The count down until next reunion has already started! 6 months! Utah or Bust!

My Maleia

Okay so I love having a blog about each one of my kiddos. They are just the best kids in the world. (No bias here, promise.)

When, My Maria, a song from Brooks and Dunn, comes on in the car, Haley, Maleia, and I belt out, "My Maleia!" instead of Maria, so it will forever remind me of my little rascal. Her favorite song right now is the "Jungle song" and wants us to sing it nightly as a family before bedtime which we horribly sing and giggle when we sing, "A weeeeeeeeeeee, a bumba way!" She is the happiest, mellowest child who seriously is happy 90% of the time. Other than being easy going, she is also our most mischievous. She wondered off two blocks away on Mother's Day and can be out of sight in three seconds. She is just a wonderer. Not deliberately disobedient, but just curious. Everyone thinks of her being more like me when I was her age.

Her love of pigs is absolutely adorable. She has this plastic Little People pig that she has held onto endearingly since she could crawl. We got her some soft pigs so she could cuddle with them better, but she sticks with her #1 plastic pig. She calls him "Piggy Piiiiiiggy." Instead of saying "peek-a-boo" she says, "Piggy Boo." Oh, and she won't eat meat if she knows it comes from a pig. . . she might have some sort of innate connection with pigs, who knows. :) Her favorite books are those with pigs in it. On "Old MacDonald's Farm" there are only pigs to her. And she will find a pig wherever we go making the sound through her mouth, not nose, which neither Brandon nor I can replicate.

She also loves Cookie Monster and says his name in a gruff voice. In fact whenever she sings the ABC's, at the end she says, "next time won't you sing with Cookie Monster!" We have Sesame Street diapers and gets a little disappointed if you give her anything but Cookie Monster.

Being 2 means that it's that time to start potty training, so I mentioned it to her the other day. When I said it was time to potty train, she yelled, "I want to go on the choo-choo Potty train!" I think she's in for a big surprise!

Haley Renee

When "Wasted," a song from Carrie Underwood, comes on in the car, Haley proclaims, "It's Carrie's Underwood! Which aunt is this one?" Poor girl. We have three Carries in our family (all spelled differently, and one is even an uncle) so she gets a little confused. Anyway, this song reminds me of her since I often catch her singing it around home, on key and with inflection. Also, she loves the song, "Buttercup Baby" and wants me to listen to her sing it when it's on in the car. She is an amazing singer by the way. She even has a vibrato and remembers the words better than I do. Let's see, more about Haley: She has just the right amount of natural curl that puts her hair in soft ringlets, she has a dimple when she smiles that melts your heart. She shrugs her shoulders, tries not to smile, and rolls her eyes, but you can totally see her dimple and a grin, when you compliment her. She is a ham in front of the camera and extremely photogenic. She has gone through phases of poses in front of the camera: the wide mouthed smile, the tilted head/shoulder to her cheek smile, the shy closed-mouthed grin extenuating her dimple, and now it's the head tilted to the side and eyebrows up smile. My little goober girl. She is my most cautious child and wouldn't even think about leaving a 10 foot radius of me. Which stems from her "worry gene" that we like to think she got from a most wonderful Stephanie Chapman. Speaking of Chapmans, we also feel she is intrinsically linked to her aunt Carrie Chapman with her clean-freak mentality, her fascination with wearing skirts, dress ups, and makeup, her hair and being so photogenic, her Diva-like tantrums, (with love Carrie, love) ADORABLE feet and hands, her tender thoughtfulness, smartness, perfectionism, singing ability, and eating habits.I think everyone can appreciate someone who likes things in order. Haley will not go to bed without her room being spotless. Though we thought this was just one of her many procrastination and stalling tactics, she will quietly sneak out of bed to put something back in its place even without us noticing until the next morning. She knows where things go and likes to do them. This is definitely a talent that she picked up from Brandon who gets giddy when something needs to be organized and does an impeccable job doing it by the way. We find out more and more reasons she is like Carrie every time we are around her. And what a remarkable person to be like! She has an amazing crafty side that I have to think came from my mother. Haley worries about everyone and Maleia makes everyone worry.

American Idol 2022 here we come! :)

Prayer

Maleia found out that praying all by herself is pretty fun and I find it pretty precious. Though some times she just looks around the room and blesses everything she sees, she surprises me more often than not. Today she blessed the beach and hungry people. (Bless the hungry and the needy.) The other day she blessed squished bugs and the ground hogs that eat mommy's garden. (Bless our enemies.) And I loved it when she blesses Heavenly Father. She does have a little Chapman in her because when she ends her prayer, she yells, "Ah-men!" Like a favorite grandpa of hers! :)

Monkey see, Monkey do

It's quite amazing what our kids pick up from us. Maleia's favorite words are "bummer" and "darn it." Haley puts her hands on her hips and points her finger. (Brandon!! jk) Okay, totally me. Maleia will put all her dolls in timeout and tell them that they can't get out of timeout until "they are good 'zamples." (That's what I say to Haley.) Haley gives the mom look at Brandon when she doesn't like what he is doing. (Sorry Brandon) It's always a riot to watch them play "mother and baby." Haley told Maleia the other day that she "can't do anything until you eat your da-gusting vegtables." It's bitter sweet when you vent to your parents what your kids are doing because most of the time they either just laugh, tell you that reminds them of you, or say, "hmm, sounds familiar," and laugh some more. That's not fair! I'm looking for sympathy, not a symphony of laughter.

Mothers and Mothers-in-law . . . priceless

Dylan? Say cheese! Did I mention that this lady is a grandmother of 16 grandchildren?

Notice my garden? I have gardened. I am a gardener. Dylan? Still asleep. . . usually he would be screaming in this thing.

There you are Dylan. . . now look at the camera! Way cute smile Stephanie! Yes, all three kids are wearing "cougar shirts."

There's nothing like a grandma who reads to her grandkids.

I feel like I can do my own credit card commercial. Ticket to come visit daughter/son: $200. Buying baby stuff for daughter/son: $100 Having your mother/mother-in-law here to help right after a baby is born: priceless. I felt a little spoiled having them here in consecutive weeks and I wasn't sure that I could do everything without them after they had left, but they have given me a hand in adjusting and feeling confident I will be just fine. PLUS, the food they made was outstanding. Wow! I will have to post some of my favorite recipes from them because they are so dang good. Pies, Scotcheroos, Boston Creme Cake, and Banana Bread. (to name a few) It is funny how I go throughout pregnancy abhorring anything sweet, (much to my family's dismay because making dessert becomes detesting) but once I have my baby, I'm all about the sweets! And how sweet it is to have family come and help out. (Nice connection, huh?) That is the bummer about living here: being too far away from our family.